Cape York July 2017

G'day everyone,we're heading to the Cape in July this year, was wondering if there is anyone heading that way, as at the moment its just us, not much fun when its just you and the missus especially if she doesn't like the bush and uses the on our own as an excuse to avoid any adventure.
I live in the Territory.
Hope to get a response
Cheers Pradoprime

Can anyone tell me which is least scariest way to go to get to Burketown then to Normanton, and to Cairns, obviuosly i wont be going via Boroloola but what about from either Camooweal or Cloncurry.
Thanks Pradoprime.

I drove the Old Coach Rd on my second Cape trip. Well worth it and I will do it again one day. Don't read too much into the reports where it takes 7 hours to drive it. It is slow going throughout the southern half of it that's for sure, but we drove it slowly ourselves to actually enjoy it and also stopped briefly a few times along the track and did it in full in 5 hours. I wore my Qld State of Origin jersey proudly all day that day in the 32 degree heat. We arrived in Laura on Wednesday afternoon which was just a mere few hours away from the night of Origin 3 2015 and we all know what an awesome well deserved thumping Qld put on NSW (Cocky County) that night which was also sadly Justin Hodges's last origin game. But he went out a winner which was all that mattered haha. When you get to Maytown and are wondering where to camp for the night before heading up the Old Coach Rd, don't be tempted to camp in the cow manure ridden creek bed. Just do the full throttle dash across the soft sandy dry creek bed and make your way up the Old Coach Rd track for a short trip to the first designated camping area. Maytown's a top little place to spend the remainder of an afternoon exploring before setting up camp.

No offence but whoever wrote that short report in the link in TurboD4D's post was over exaggerating a fair bit. It's nowhere near as difficult as he/she was making out. If you're not towing anything it's really a walk in the park and largely a leisurely drive. The northern 30km section is actually the smoothed out basic part of the track that you can drive at a higher speed. The southern 40km section is the slow going part due to the roughness of the track. One of my mates got two tyre punctures on this track during our drive, but against my advice he was running pressures that were too high. I was personally expecting it to be difficult before I got there going by the information I'd read on it prior & videos I'd watched of it, but while driving it and afterwards we all wondered what the fuss was all about with the difficulty. The person who wrote those trip report comments wrote them as though they must've been 4wding for the very first time, and if they were I'd understand why they got carried away and over exaggerated about the difficulty so much. It is amazing how many tall tales there are with regards to Cape York tracks and track conditions, and the short story in that link is no exception. If you listen to every story you read and what people tell you up there about track conditions and difficultly, you'll quickly learn not to listen to anyone. Almost every track you drive up there is as easy or as difficult as you make it, and when you come across them you'll know what I mean.

There were photos among those photos shown in the trip report that DID show all of the most difficult parts. I just don't like it when people blatantly lie about sh*t, for who's benefit could be anyone's guess. If you've ever driven any medium difficulty track at a 4wd park then you've already driven stuff more difficult and hair raising than anything on the Old Coach Rd. It's an enjoyable track to drive and its well worth driving it. I highly recommend it.

We are leaving Darwin on or close to the 20th July, unfortunately cant leave before the 20th, however I'm flexible with timings after that. As for going thru the Gulf Country I'm flexible with that as well.